Page 8 of Wickedly Tainted

I pounded on hisstrong back with my good hand in a weak attempt to get him torelease me. He stopped and I thought I had won until he brought hisflattened palm down on my ass cheek. I yelped and stoppedsquirming. He chuckled as he stepped through the threshold, into mylit foyer.

My face flamed as Itried to squelch the sudden arousal that coursed to my core. I hadlet a couple of men spank me before during sex but it never haddone anything for me until now. I went from pissed off to turned onin five seconds flat. Something about Damon being the one who doledout the warning had done it for me. I could feel my nipples tightenunder my t-shirt and my panties were suddenly damp.

For someone who hadnever been inside my home before, he acted like he knew his wayaround. After he stopped shortly to inspect my broken window, heflipped on the lights and found his way to my bedroom withoutinstructions. When he stepped up to my king-sized bed, he flippedme back down carefully, sitting me on the edge of the bed beforewalking into my bathroom.

I sat there in shockas he rummaged around in the drawers. When he came back he held adisposable cup containing blue liquid, a box of tissues, rubbingalcohol, tweezers, and bandages. He slid over a small trash canthat sat in the corner of my room and got down on his knees infront of me.

Something abouthaving him kneeling before me made my mind go to naughty places. Ofcourse, everything about him made my mind go to naughty places.

He held out the cupof blue liquid for me and I realized it was mouthwash. I glared athim while I took the offered cup. I thought about tossing it backinto his face for a moment, but then again, I could still taste myearlier sick.

I held eye contactwhile I tilted the minty contents into my mouth and swished. Hewatched my mouth work the liquid back and forth with humor in hiseyes. I continued to give him the stink eye as I spit back into thecup and snatched a tissue he offered me. After I wiped my mouth, Ipushed the tissue into the cup and threw it in the trash can.

He just kept lookingat me silently, waiting for something. The silence stretched forlong moments. Neither one of us was willing to be the first to backdown from this weird staring contest. I rolled my eyes. This waschildish, so I conceded.

“Okay, I will be thegrown-up here.” I huffed. “I’m sorry I called you for nothing. Iwill admit that I haven’t been sleeping a lot lately and my nerveshave had me a little … jumpy lately.” I made an excuse. He justkept looking at me with a small smirk on his lips. “Clearly, thereis no reason for you to be here. You can go now,” I finished,hoping he would take the hint.

He shook his headand held out his open hand. I looked at it like it was poisonousbefore meeting his eyes again. When I didn’t move, he let out ahuff of a laugh and grabbed for my wounded hand. His warm, gentletouch made a shiver run up my spine before I snatched my handback.

“I can take care ofthis, you don’t need to clean it.”

His eyes hardenedagain. “Jill, give me your hand,” he demanded coarsely. I glared athim again.

“I said I can takecare of it. Seriously, you ca—”

“Do you ever justshut up and let someone take care of you for a change? I said.Give. Me. Your. Hand.” He said each word with a chipped tone.

I felt goose bumpsrise on my arms. Nobody ever talked to me the way Damon did. Hetook charge and didn’t put up with any shit. Honestly, I found it alittle refreshing. I also found it infuriating. I rolled my eyesand held my palm out for his inspection.

“Fine, have at it.Could you try to hurry? I would like to be done with this day,” Imurmured in an annoyed tone.

I watched him as hecarefully looked over my shredded palm. He was surprisingly gentleas he used the tweezers to extract a broken piece of glass from myhand. I took that time to look over his features while he wasn’tlooking at me. His long dark-brown curls were mussed like he hadrun his hand through the soft locks more than once today. I wouldbet that’s what he did when he was frustrated by something. Thesilky strands hit right at the top of his shoulders, begging for myfingers to run through them.

He had the cutestlittle crease between his eyes that spoke of long moments ofconcentration. His lips were plump and moist. I knew from our lastkiss that they were perfect to nibble on as he took his timedevouring me. He had the start of a beard growing, unkempt alonghis sharp jaw. I couldn’t help thinking about how the rough hairwould feel rubbing against my inner thighs.

Dangerousterritory, Jill, move on. My gaze traveled further up again tolook at his deep cocoa eyes surrounded by lashes that most womenwould kill for. The whole image he made was one of masculinebeauty.

He fluttered hiseyes up to meet mine as if he knew I was staring at him again. Idon’t know what he read on my face but whatever it was had his eyesdarkening. I sucked in a breath and tried to pull away my gaze butI couldn’t. I was enchanted. But, he broke the spell by lookingaway first.

“So, what is it thathas made you so jumpy lately?” he asked as he put the tweezersdown. “Why haven’t you been sleeping?” He arched an eyebrow beforereturning his attention to my hand.

After grabbing therubbing alcohol, he dabbed my palm. I hissed at the burn but didn’tpull out of his hold. I continued to observe him as he cleaned myhand.

“Oh, I don’t know.Maybe because I got shot three months ago, in case you forgot,” Iresponded, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

He looked up longenough to glare at me “Believe me, I remember,” he scolded in ahard voice before he returned to his task.

I sighed as Icontinued. “For half my life, I have needed to hold a certaindegree of … control. When I got shot, it kind of threw me into aplace where I had none. I think I’m just having a hard time gettingit back.” It was so hard to explain to people who didn’t understandwhat it felt like to have no choice in what happened to them. “Asfor sleep…” I trailed off.

Damon glanced backup to me as I mulled over what to divulge with him. The thoughtcrossed my mind to make him jealous. Tell him I was seeing someoneand that’s why I wasn’t sleeping. But one look in his concernedeyes had me telling the truth.

“Nightmares.”

He nodded andresumed examining my palm. “What do you dream about?” he asked.

I snorted beforeanswering as if the answer to his question was obvious. I watchedhim as he started to bandage my hand. “Things I can’t control,” Imurmured.

Now that the bloodwas all cleaned up, I could see it wasn’t that bad. It would healin a few days.

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